


Not For The First Time

by Ryuchu



Category: Tales of Berseria
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 10:09:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19766011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryuchu/pseuds/Ryuchu
Summary: Even if I wasn't a boy, I would still be in love.





	Not For The First Time

**Author's Note:**

> Hi. Hello. I love. VelNiko.

“If you were a boy, I think I’d be in love.”

Velvet wonders, not for the first time, if Niko knows.

Knows how that sentence sends goose pimples flaring across her arms; knows that her heart beat stutters when Niko smiles; knows that her dismissive response of “good thing I’m a girl then” isn’t what she actually wants to say.

Velvet wonders, not for the first time, what it might be like to kiss Niko.

Not a kiss like how she kisses Laphicet’s when he takes his medicine without complaining; not a kiss like the one an overeager village boy forced onto her during the festival dancing last year (and got punched in the gut for).

When she imagines kissing Niko, it both slow and fast, eager and hesitant. Velvet has never really kissed anyone, but Niko told her about the few kisses she’s had with boys. She says it makes you feel “soupy”. At first, Velvet had no idea what she was talking about, but when she imagines kissing Niko, she begins to understand. It’s warm and mushy and spreads heat right to your stomach and cheeks.

Velvet wonders, not for the first time, if Niko might agree to kiss her if she asked.

Niko is bright, bubbly, and spontaneous. When she finds something to be fun - or better yet, mischievous - she gets this sparkle in her eyes and Velvet knows one crazy scheme or another was to follow. It had gotten them into trouble. A lot.

Niko’s spontaneity was unpredictable, coming and going in bursts, like the whims of the wind. Maybe if Velvet worked up the courage to ask, those whims would be in her favor. But then again, maybe they wouldn’t.

Velvet wonders, not for the first time, if she’s in love with Niko.

In storybooks and the village around her, there are couples everywhere. Two people that love each other very much. A boy and a girl. A mommy and a daddy. But when she tries to picture herself like that, all she can see is Niko, red hair and amber eyes filled with fire.

Even as she grows, no man ever makes himself known in her daydreaming about a happy life with the person she loves. Only Niko. Over and over and over again.

Velvet wonders, not for the first time, what it would be like to say “I love you” to Niko.

Niko says it easily enough, when Velvet makes a quiche for her or teaches her a new recipe. The words flow freely from Niko’s lips, but Velvet can never match that breeziness. Her tongue always trips up, sending her hurtling deeper and deeper into the soupy mess of emotions she can’t allow herself to act on.

So instead, she settles for stealing Niko’s favorite line and sending it back at her.

Because it’s the closest she can get.

“If I were a boy, I think I’d be in love.”


End file.
